Garment hanger



Filed Oct. 3, 1957 AIN1/Emol; Lean H. ZBuhHn WM ff/M I ATToRNEY l United States Patent GARMENT HANGER Leon H. Zeuthen, 3241 Portland Ave.,

Minneapolis,

Filed Oct. 3, 1957, Ser. No. 688,030

1 Claim. (Cl. 223-95) This invention relates broadly to garment hangers of the type from which individual garments are held suspended from a support and, more particularly, to a trouser and skirt hanger.

The principal object of this invention is to' provide a trouser and skirt hanger that is capable of supporting a pair of trousers or a skirt, the said trousers by the cuis thereof and, conversely, the by its waist band in such a manner as to preserve said garments in their properly pressed condition.

Another object of this invention is to provide a hanger of the type described whereby the trousers may be suspended from each cuff portion thereof with compensation provided for slightly varied widths of cuffs.

Another object of this invention is to provide a hanger of the type described wherein said hanger is provided with garment protecting tip sections, said tip sections also further enhancing the garment gripping qualities of the hanger.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a hanger of the type described that is relatively simple and easy to manufacture with a minimum amount of tooling and die work and still maintaining a high degree of garment supporting efficiency.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a hanger of the type described that permits the hanging of garments on individual hangers in a minimum amount of space and which hangers themselves, when not supporting a garment, will occupy a minimum amount of space.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a garment hanger of tempered spring steel construction which, after assuming an initial set, will always maintain proper tension to securely support a garment-a distinct advantage over standard spring steel wire which takes a set each time it is compressed to engage a garment.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a garment hanger that engages the lower inside diameter of each trouser leg at its crease or the inside waist band of a skirt by spring tension and frictional contact.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a garment hanger wherein its tempered spring steel supporting members have an overall length greater than the inside diameter of that portion of a garment which they engage.

A still `further object of this invention is .to provide a garment hanger, particular reference being made to a trouser hanger of the type described, whrein said trouser, with or without upturned cuffs, is held suspendedy at its lower end or cuif portion, at the crease from within the leg portion of said trouser rather than from within the upturned cuf portion, each leg of said trouser and being individually so'supported.

A still `further object of the invention is to provide a hanger of the type described wherein said hanger in certain of its assembled forms is provided with a supporting hook member that is capable of being folded into an inoperative position to faciltate packaging and carrying when not in use.

These and other objects of the invention will become "ice apparent from the following specification and claims taken in conjunction with the appended drawings which form a part of this application and in which like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views.

To the above end, generally stated, the invention consists of the novel devices and combination of devices hereinafter described and Vdefined in the claim.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of one form of the improved garment hanger;

Fig. 2 is an end elevational View of the same;

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view of a modification of the hanger shown in Fig. 1; A

Fig. 4 is an end elevational view of the modified version shown in Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is a. fragmentary section of a single garment engaging member as would be embodied in a skirt hanger and also showing one of the garment protecting tips on an enlarged scale.

It will be understood that in the interest of brevity and to avoid the repetitions use of words, the garment hanger referred to is of tempered spring steel construction for the reasons heretofore given in the objects of the invention.

With reference to the form of the invention shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the numeral 6 indicates a trouser cuifengaging spring member formed of a single piece of.

spring steel wire, the outer end portions 7 of which lie in substantially a horizontal plane but which may be slightly downwardly diverging relative to the true horizontal plane thereof. The central portion of the spring member 6 is bent upwardly at the exact longitudinal center of the said spring member 6 to form an inverted U that is flattened longitudinally throughout most of its closed upper end portion as indicated by the numeral 8. A supporting hook 9 is formed of a single piece of tlat metal. A clip 10 is formed in the parent metal of the lower end portion 10 of the hook 9, said clip being in the form of an inverted U wherein the upper and side portions thereof perforate the metal of the lower end portion of the hook 9 and the upper end portion of the clip 10 is bent outwardly toform a tab 11, as will presently be described. A longitudinally disposed groove 12 of substantially the same diameter as the wire forming the spring member 6 is formed in -the inner opposing surfaces of the clip 10, and the adjacent surfaces 10' of the lower end portion of the hook 9. It will thus be seen that to assemble the hook member 9 to the garmentengaging spring member 6, it is only necessary to position the section 8 over the tab 11 of the hook 9 and snap the former into position in the longitudinal groove 12. It will be understood that the material of which thehook 9 is formed will possess enough inherent resiliency to frctionally and securely hold the spring member 6 in the groove 12 and still permit axial rotation of the hook 9 on the section 8 of the spring member 6, whereby the hook portion thereof may be folded downwardly into the inverted U of the member 6 for storing and packaging in a minimum amount of space. A radial bead 13 is stamped or otherwise formedin the hoo-k proper of the member 9 to impart greater rigidity and stiffness thereto.

A pair of trouser-cu-engaging members 14, see Figs. 1 and 2, are frctionally mounted on the outer end portion of the springl member 6 and have axial rotation therewith lfor minor adjustment with a garment supported therefrom. These members are formed of a single piece of skeletonized material to achieve lightness of weight and are covered over most of their surfaces with a protective coating to afford protection for garments engaged thereby and to further enhance the gripping quality of the said members when the same engage the garment material. A plurality of transverse slits are formed at the longitudinal center of the member 14 to aord upper and lower bearing members which encircle the outer end portionV of the spring member 6 with a relatively tight irictional flt.. It Yis important to note here that the matevrial, outwardly of the outermost slit or cut is bent only to a point-Y whereby it `engages the-transverse center of the'endportions of the'springgmember 6 toraford a stop to limit the inward longitudinal movement of the members 1,4. The identical end portions of the said members 14 are thence bent downwardly until the are 'substan-l tially parallel, to thus provide a pair of trouser-cuff-engaging fingers. These members 14 are so fabricated that when the same are bent into final position as above, its trouser-culf-engaging ngers are in a downwardly and outwardly diverging place to facilitate the engagement of the same with the trouser culi.

The parallel downturned members 14 being transversely spaced engage the cut of each trouser leg with each longitudinally opposed pair thereof. To suspend a pair of trousers therefrom, it is only necessary t0 grip the centrally disposed inverted U section of the spring member "6 manually and thereby compress the same until the respective downturned ngers of the members 14 can VVbe placed inside the cuff of the respective trouser leg at Y the crease.

Thence, upon releasing the tension of the spring member 6, the members 14 mounted thereon will be expanded into engagement with the inside of the trou- It is desired Yto note here that the foregoing description of a trouser hanger will obviously suiiice for a skirt hanger except that the dual parallel downtuined prongs or lingers 14 for engagement wtih a pair of trouser cults are unnecessary. In a skirt hanger, the end portions of the spring member 6 are bent downwardly and outwardly to form a pair of downturned single prongs 16,as shown in Fig. 5, which, whencompressed by manual pressure on the inverted U-shaped section of the spring member ser cui and tightly hold the same suspended therefrom.

6, are inserted inside the waist band of a skirt and thence i released to Yexpand outwardly against the restriction imposed by said waist band. A protective coating 17 israpplied to the prongs '16 to further facilitate the expansive ment suspended therefrom.

YThe structure for both the trouser and skirt hanger thus rfar described has embodied the use of a single spring steel supporting larm or member 6 detachably connected to a hook `member 9 and taken in a general sense, has provento be entirely adequate for the purposes intended'. Itis ywellknown, however, that a certain variance occurs in the manufacture of trousers, slacks and the like and to compensate therefor Ithave provided a modification of the` basic invention heretofore described, reference being had to the trouser hanger only. Y It Will be understood that when therey is evena relatively-slight variance inthe width of the cuff of respective trouser leg portions, it is inevitable that the spring action of the hanger, expanded outwardly against the restriction of the respective cults, will engage said cuffs with a dilerent degree Vof outward expansion. This condition must obviously occur when a single spring steel supporting member is used to mount the pairs of parallel downwardly projecting prongs 16. To meet the problem of trouser cutis having somewhat varied widths, I have provided vthe following modification, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4 ofthe drawing. Y

n .the interest of clarity, a prime will. be used in connection with identical parts in Figs. 3 and 4 as previ'-V In this modification, the hook kmember 9 is essentially the same except that the clip portion ously described.

thereof `10 is .transversely widened to accommodate a pair of spring steel supporting arms, each having a longitudinallydisposed upwardly projected central Uy section Vgripping qualities ofthe hangerl and to protect the garu Viingerpiece 11.

VFormed in the lower end portion of the hook member 9 are a pair of opposed longitudinally extended ears 18' that extend between the spring members 6' inthe upper orclosed end portion of the .LJ-section 8', thus aiording a spacer member so positioned Vandy dimensioned as to provide adequate separation progressively, to the outer end portions of the Spring steel arm members 6 t0 facilitate the engagement of the sante with the culs of a pair of trousers. The outer end portion of the independently acting spring steel members' are downturned to form a pair of culi engaging prongs 114', Veach prong being coated with a material to protect the garment from metal contact and further enhance thefrictional engaging qualities of the prongs 14 as they engage the inside of a trouser cuff. Y

It will thus be seen that a pair of independently acting spring members 6 will engage a single trouser cuff regardless of variance in the width of said cults and hold said trousers properly and tightly suspended relative to the crease therein. Obviously, in the modification just described, the assembled parts provide a veisl rigid structure and said modilication does not lend itself to compact storing and packaging in assembled relation as does the unit having the single Aspring steel armv 6 and wherein the hook member 9 may be swung downwardly by axial rotation of the hook around the closed U Vportion of the hanger. However, one of the important features both from a sales and manufacturing standpoint of this improved hanger resides in its ability to becompletely disassembled or assembled merely by holding the tab 11 or 11 open and separating the spring arm member 6 and 6' from the hook member 9 9 Yparticularly for packaging. t

While there are herein disclosed but a limited number of embodiments of the structure, process and product of the invention herein presented, it iS possible to produce still other embodiments without departing from the inventive concept herein disclosed, and it is desired, therefore, that only such limitations be-imposed on the appended claim as are stated herein or required by the prior art.

What I claim is:

A garment ,hanger of the class described comprising in combination, aV supporting hook member, a'pair of spring steel garment supporting members having parallel central portions, outwardly and downwardly yextending intermediate portions and outwardly and longitudinally extending garment supporting arms terminating at their respective outer end portionsV in pairs of opposed and laterally spaced downturned garment engaging prongs, clamping means associated and Vintegral with Vthe said hook vmember for clamping the central portions of the garment supporting members in operable arrangement, spacer means integral with and depending from the clamping means of the hook member Yinterposed between the spring steel garment supporting members Vat the central portions Vtl'ilereof'whereby the 'said' garment supporting members and the garment supporting prongs arer'hield in progressive outwardly and downwardly Y spaced arrangement the one from the other to facilitate the mount'- Ving of a' garment thereon, each ygarment Vsupport-ing arm and its cooperating garment engaging prong Vbeing mounted to independently engage a portion of a garment supported thereon.

References Cited in the lfile of Vthis patent l UNITED STATES YPATENTS r445,099 

